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Pub Installs Electrified Fence Around Bar
No crowding the bar, as in this pub in St Just, Cornwall.
(Electric Fence at Star Inn in St Just, Cornwall)
Jonny McFadden, who runs the Star Inn in St Just, Cornwall, told CNN that he installed the electric fence in front of the pub's bar for social distancing purposes."It's a very small pub, the first and last rural pub in Cornwall," he said.
England's pubs were allowed to reopen their doors on July 4, after being closed during the UK lockdown. Social distancing remains mandatory, and customers must hand over their contact details before they enter to help with coronavirus tracking if needed.
As far as I know, the first reference anywhere to an electrified fence may be found in A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, an 1889 novel by Mark Twain.
Well, how have you arranged the fence?""I start twelve immensely strong wires--naked, not insulated --from a big dynamo in the cave--dynamo with no brushes except a positive and a negative one--"
"Yes, that's right."
"The wires go out from the cave and fence in a circle of level ground a hundred yards in diameter; they make twelve independent fences, ten feet apart--that is to say, twelve circles within circles--and their ends come into the cave again."
"Right; go on."
"The fences are fastened to heavy oaken posts only three feet apart, and these posts are sunk five feet in the ground."
"That is good and strong."
Many sources credit Twain as the earliest source for this idea; however, in his 1875 epic 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Jules Verne writes about electrifying a stair rail or cable to prevent unwanted intrusions onto the Nautilus.
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